Circular Letters

Circular Letter 5587

May 2, 2003

To: All Member Banks and Others Concerned in the Third Federal Reserve District

Attention: Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Subject: REGULATION B - FINAL RULE

Summary:

The Board is publishing
a final rule amending Regulation B, pursuant to the
Board's policy of periodically reviewing and updating
its regulations. Regulation B implements the Equal
Credit Opportunity Act. Among other things, the final
rule retains the general prohibition against inquiring
about, or noting, applicant characteristics for nonmortgage
credit transactions, and creates an exception when
such data are collected for the purpose of conducting
a self-test. The final rule also requires creditors
to retain certain records related to prescreened solicitations
for 25 months, to enable federal financial enforcement
agencies to assess whether or how national origin,
race, age, or other prohibited bases of discrimination
under the ECOA are taken into account in prescreened
solicitations. The official staff commentary has also
been amended; consideration of several previously
proposed amendments has been deferred to allow for
supplemental comment.

A copy of the final rule is attached(727 KB, 143 pages).
It was printed in the Federal Register for March 18,
2003.

Dates: Effective April 15, 2003; however, to allow time for any necessary operational changes, the mandatory compliance date is April 15, 2004.

For Further Information: John C. Wood, Counsel; Kathleen C. Ryan
or David A. Stein, Senior Attorneys; or Minh-Duc T.
Le, Attorney; Division of Consumer and Community Affairs,
B oard of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, at
(202) 452-3667 or 452-2412; for users of Telecommunications
Device for the Deaf ("TDD") only, contact
(202) 263-4869.